Art
by singingstranger
Summary: Perspective of a nameless sister of Ravios' who grows up as friends with Yuga. She is an artist and inspires him. However when Lorule is short from dying and Princess Hilda makes he drastic decision, everything changes. MAJOR SPOILER ALERT I warned you.


He would often come to my house when I painted. The lingering smell of turpentine oil was stronger than honey for bees to him, accumulating to hundreds of visits over time. It was him who lend me a paintbrush when mine broke as a little child and who stood by my side, watching me capture what I saw. When Ravio looked the other way I would sneak off to one of the bridges and paint the dying trees, the withering grass and the bottomless pits by my feet for hours. The townspeople might sneak up and look over my shoulder, patting my head and calling me a dreamer with a good heart.

But he never belittled me. He never thought I was an airheaded little child, unlike they did. In fact, he loved my optimism. His watchful eyes were silent observers, his strong hands my guides to certain curves on the paper.

I liked him. Since childhood we had often spent time together like that and he had always promised to show me his own paintings in exchange for me letting him watch. But every time I asked, he was busy. So at some point, I gave up.

Giving up was a bit of a trend really. When I asked my brother Ravio why the lad was chipping away or why we didn't have any more milk, he would simply hug me and ask me to pray with him. He would study his books for hours, telling me exciting things and object names he had thought of. In fact, if he got caught up enough in it, he would even forget to feed poor Sheerow.

"He's in denial." the thief girl told me one day while sitting on Ravios bed and letting me draw her feet, "They all are."

"In denial of what?" I asked.

She looked at me with a worried and sad expression: "Death."

Of course I knew that there was a lot of drinking going on. The milk in the bar was not for children after all. It was becoming more and more dangerous to leave the houses so people stayed inside. People were afraid. By the time I became a woman, I knew that we were all doomed. Our country, our entire world was at the brink.

We, the children were not supervised much at all. With death in every corner we were even encouraged to live. A youngster from our town one day simply stormed into our house and crushed Ravio to the wall. He threatened violence unless my brother told him how to make a bomb. Ravio was so mortified he gave him a book about it and the teen ran off before never being seen again.

Scared I had fetched a soldier but the gloomy and tired man had been of no help. So finally, with my brother sulking in a corner, I walked into the forest and cried.

But as always when I was upset, he came to lift my spirits. He found and comforted me, offering a pencil and some scrap of paper to me.

"What happened?"

So I told him. He hugged me all of a sudden and I let him, but then I drew some more. Long before I felt ready to go home, he had already left. When I got back to the house, Ravio was trying hard to write down the things he could remember about the book of bombs. I left him to it and went to bed.

Yuga.

In our dark country where the sun never really would rise, he was my moon and stars. Ever since the bomb story we grew closer. He would sneak past the guards of town after curfew and I would leave the house in silence. Together we went to the brink of our country and stared into the void, talking about how to paint it correctly.

"Why do we paint at all?" I once asked him, "Nothing will be left once the country dies."

He looked at me with a fire that caught me and made me smile: "It will not die!"

I simply smiled and said: "I hope so… I wish that someday, after my death, my pictures will still be seen. To remind people of how our country once was."

"Do you love Lorule?" he asked.

"Yes, Yuga. I wish I could do something to make it last for ever. But that power is not mine to take."

There was something in his eyes in that moment. A sort of wonder, curiosity. Then he broke into a gentle smile and nodded kissing my forehead in a brotherly way. I turned away and looked back into the void of death.

When the soldiers left the town, it came as a surprise for everyone. They had simply vanished over night. A couple of rumors said they had taken the last bridge over to the eastern temple of darkness but nobody really knew why. After that though, Ravio started to stay away from town. The guild of thieves took over control and even Yuga started complaining. They were taking items left and right, taking power from our elders by the day. He didn't like the thieves.

"Our town is becoming the thieves' town!" he grumbled as I squeezed some white oil paint onto my color coated plate.

"Don't be silly, Yuga." I said and mixed the white with some blue, applying it to the sky on my canvas.

He leaned in: "What are you painting?"

"Nothing much…" I was embarrassed, really, by this silly little fantasy, "Just… how I imagine the sky might look if it weren't cloudy. I think it would be blue, or yellow."

Again his expression showed wonder and thoughtfulness.

Then I gave him my paint brush: "Here, show me how you would imagine the sky."

He was embarrassed but obliged finally. His sky was pitch black.

"That's a pessimistic one." I stated.

"I'll add some white dots. You know, as stars."

I shook my head: "What must wait until the paint is dry."

He never painted the stars. The worst imaginable thing happened the very same day. I remember the cries and screams of women and the faint thieves praying to the gods they claimed to not believe in when the cliff in the north of town broke and three houses were torn into the void. There was a terrible earth quake that brought brother and me into town and made Yugas house collapse.

I yelled and screamed that night, begging them to tell me Yuga was alive. But no one could tell me. Finally, the thief girl let me sleep on her lap until dawn when he came home to find his house destroyed. He had been in the castle that night. And with him this dreadful morning was the princess herself.

We bowed to Hilda and I simply hid away, crying. She looked around carefully, speaking to my brother and smiling when he kissed her hand. Frankly, I was a bit jealous. But I knew they talked often in the castle, the place I had never been. Ravio was scared of letting me go there on my own and too cowardly to accompany me. Yuga dug through the shambles of his house, stony faced as he picked up shreds of canvas and paper, gone and lost and unrecognizable. If I could, I would have helped him. But I was too numb.

Death had never felt so close.

That night I heard someone enter. Ravio got up immediately, holding up his blanket against his chest for protection as I hurdled into a tight little ball, pretending to be asleep.

I could hear Yugas quiet voice: "Do you own books on magic?"

He laughed nervously: "N-no, not at all. I only own books on forgotten items and-"

"Don't lie!"

I almost jumped out of my skin in fright.

Ravio sounded pleading: "Yuga, friend, don't ask this of me."

"The princess wishes to find a way to save us all!" Yuga snapped, "Now hand over everything you have that might do that job."

I wished that just this once, Ravio had been strong and bold. But he was afraid. They all were. And so, each night, he would give him a book. At day, he spent most of his time in the castle or with me, praying. But every night he would get up when he thought me asleep and give Yuga another book on magic.

I was the first to know. Well, everyone kinda knew and perhaps Ravio knew more than he said. But when the worlds cracked open I knew, because Yuga showed me.

He brought me to the castle, making me promise to not tell a soul. In his hand he held an awkward staff. The princess eyed me doubtfully and I feared her more than ever before, thinking I was doing something forbidden as we walked past all these horrible creatures. I was mortified to see that they all seemed to listen to her and Yuga. Just the other day a child from our town had gone missing and his mother was confident he had been killed.

Nothing could have prepared me for the sight of the crack. A gleaming source of light, a kind of light I had never seen in sixteen years of life. It was beautiful, godly and horrifying. With a yell, I ran back, I refused to go any closer and had to shield my eyes that were not sensitized to this kind of brightness.

Yuga took hold of my shoulders and said: "Do you remember the blue sky? It exists! I've seen it!"

"Yuga, you are crazy!" I cried holding my eyes shut.

"I saw paradise." he exclaimed shaking me, "It is on the other side. A country that has the light our side has lost to idiot kings!"

Hilda watched us in silence until then but interfered sharply: "Yuga! Do not say any more."

"I don't understand." I sobbed trying to get away with fear clutching my throat, "Just let me go home, please…"

But Yuga was only getting started: "But don't you see? We will take that source and our land will live! We will flourish! We, our world, will survive! People will see your paintings!"

I thought he had gone mad. Backing away until I stood at the brink, I begged him: "Yuga, I want to go home. I want to go back to Ravio."

"Oh, don't be scared." he said with a laugh, "Here, stand by the door… yes, like that. Now just one moment. It will be over right away, but I must try this out before I do it to myself."

There was a blinding roar of colors that made me scream. I wanted to close my eyes, to protect myself, but I could not. I was motionless, stiff. I could not breathe, there was a deafening silence, an absence in me of sounds my body made and no longer did. My lungs felt numb, my brain like it was shutting down.

I don't know how long I hung there as a painting but with a snap I was back, gasping and crying on the ground. I had to crawl to get away from them, pulling myself through the doors and to the private quarters of the princess before I dared trust my feet. It felt as though my head were made of lead all the way home. But as I left the castle and saw upward, I saw Hilda and Yuga looking down at me. And he was saying, I could hear it just barely, that it was a pity I made such an ugly painting on the walls.

Exhausted I came home to Ravio who was going crazy with fear. He shook me, begging me to tell him what had happened until I broke down and said everything I knew. He looked overwhelmed, hurt even but also understanding and sad. Carefully he tucked me into bed and said an evening prayer with me. Then he got his coat with the bunny ears. He packed his bag with items and crafts from all over the house, tossing in some books and a handful of money as well as one of my paintbrushes and walked out to go and figure out what was happening.

I didn't stay in bed long. I felt bad, tired and aching all over. Feverishly I left the house and walked over to town to find someone to watch over me until my brother returned. Unfortunately, it was a monster that found me first and struck me down with its club.

When I came to, I was in a strange place. The sky was a striking blue, there was a hand on my forehead and a lap under my neck, supporting me. I heard the chirping of birds and the soft breathing of a man. Yuga had somehow brought me to Hyrule. He tried explaining but I was too tired and hurt. I tried turning away from him but my legs would not listen.

"How long was I gone?" I asked in tears, "I want to go home!"

"You no longer have a home." he said and I felt he was not lying.

"Where is Ravio! Where!" I demanded, wishing I had the strength to punch him, to yell at him and to make him feel the disappointment I felt in him, the disappointment that he was not who I thought he was. And my endless fear.

"He is gone. We don't know where to," he kissed my forehead, "Forget about your brother. He is a coward anyway. I am going to be the king of these worlds soon and then, little people like him will be at my feet."

"Have you finally gone mad?" I scoffed.

He picked me up like a doll, even though he was only a bit older than me and carried me over to a little cave. Inside there were paintings. I did not recognize a single face but he insisted they were masterpieces, true art. Baffled I froze, eyeing the magical portraits and feeling chills of fear running down my spine.

"Yuga, what have you done!"

He looked at me in surprise: "Aren't they lovely? Just look at the colors and-"

"Yuga!" I felt scared, "They're horrible! Look at how pained they are! Look at how scared-"

I never finished that sentence. He had thrown me against the wall with all his might, almost knocking me out. There was madness in his eyes as he raised his wand and brought it down on me like a scepter, me, the critique, the one he had cared about, and banned me to the cave stones in a thousand shattered pieces. The rage had dissolved the makeup around his eyes, making it flow down his cheeks in dark streaks.

I think that was the last moment of the boy who had made me feel so happy and optimistic through out my childhood. He, who loved to see me paint, had failed me. As a punishment, he took me away from himself for ever.


End file.
